wp-cron using 25% of cpu resources

You probably have a stuck cron job of some sort, or wp-cron is unable to do its work for whatever reason. If you have access to the database (via phpMyAdmin), look in the options table and find an option with a key of “cron”. Then post the content of that option here so we can tell you what’s wrong with it.

thanks otto.

i am logged in phpmyadmin and this is wp-options table:

https://img74.imageshack.us/img74/3228/wpoptionsxe4.jpg

Go back there, click on Browse, then find the row corresponding to the option_name of “cron”. Then click on the view button for that and look for the option_value. It’ll be a weird string. We need that weird string.

would be this??

a:17:{i:1181500508;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181501688;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181502468;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181503029;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181503514;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181505855;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181506170;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181506880;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181581007;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181582252;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181588864;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181589644;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181589937;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181603566;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181603669;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}i:1181664899;a:1:{s:8:”do_pings”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:2:{s:8:”schedule”;b:0;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}}}}s:7:”version”;i:2;}

Yep, that’s it.

You have 17 instances of “do_pings” scheduled but which can’t seem to run. These are scheduled whenever you make a new post. Their purpose is to process the pingbacks and trackbacks for that post. They also handle enclosures and such.

The best way to get rid of them is to let them process, except that they can’t for some reason. I’m guessing that your server is not allowing outside connections or something and so they hang indefinitely.

A temporary fix: Add this to your theme’s functions.php file:
remove_action('do_pings', 'do_all_pings', 10, 1);

That will let those do_pings process through, doing nothing, and then getting removed. However, this will also stop pingbacks/trackbacks/enclosures from working. But if that’s acceptable to you, there you go.

Hello all,

Isn’t WP-Cron obsolete for WP 2.1+ ? I was looking for this plugin and I just read this information on skippy dot net.
But it seems to work pretty well for you eberdocarmo, what version of WP are you running?

WP-Cron, the plugin, is obsolete, because a form of wp-cron is now actually built into WordPress 2.1 and up.

In other words, you don’t need the plugin for 2.1 anymore because it’s already there. ??

@nadglobtrotter:

i am using WP 2.1.2, and no plugins to do this cron thing. just WP.

i use that “no ping wait” plugin. it may be causing this problem?

Alright ! ok i’ll play with it. Thanks!

i use that “no ping wait” plugin. it may be causing this problem?

There is no longer a wait on pings since 2.1 because they put it onto wp-cron instead.

If you have some plugin messing with it, then yes, that might be a problem. Deactivate and delete that plugin.

A temporary fix: Add this to your theme’s functions.php file:
remove_action('do_pings', 'do_all_pings', 10, 1);

This worked well for me thanks Otto42.

Hi i upgraded from movable type to wordpress and i have the same issue of cron thingy , but i dont see a option called cron at all in the table , is that a issues , for now what i have did is i have commented the cron function itself inside the cron.php file , please tell me what to do .

I am having similar CPU issues on the server, here is my cron option value:

a:2:{i:1203018661;a:1:{s:17:”wp_db_backup_cron”;a:1:{s:32:”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a”;a:3:{s:8:”schedule”;s:6:”weekly”;s:4:”args”;a:0:{}s:8:”interval”;i:604800;}}}s:7:”version”;i:2;}

Does this look like something that would be the root of my problems?

I did also before have similar CPU issues on the server. But this one has already been fixed. And later I did have some other problem by inserting, editing, and publishing new articles to the blogs. Normally after the insertion, editing, or publishing the page will be automatically loaded. But instead i had a white page. I wonder what will be the reason for this. Suddenly i saw this blog page ?? and Otto42 just give me a good solution of reducing the CPU issues and accidentally solved the problem with white page also. Because all the do_pings schedules are still in the database.

Thanks Otto42.